Chapter 12: Kill!

【You used a secret art, beginning to burn your lifespan. Your cultivation climbed steadily, quickly breaking through to the ninth layer of Foundation Establishment.】

【The Azure Luan Sword in your hand hummed, its powerful force gradually becoming impossible to suppress, ready to be released at any moment.】

【The Azure Cloud Sect cultivator who had originally looked down on you now wore a gradually darkening expression. He sensed the threat within the Azure Luan Sword in your hand.】

【“This sword strike might kill me!” The thought had just flashed through your enemy’s mind.】

【In the next instant, you struck directly!】

【You opened with the Jinghong Sword Technique, going straight for his vital point!】

【The distance was too short, the speed too fast. Your opponent had no time to react at all, able only to rely on instinct to defend.】

【With a bang, you drove the Azure Luan Sword straight through his skull.】

【The powerful sword qi annihilated his divine sense. His eyes went blank as he slowly collapsed, dead beyond any doubt.】

【Everything happened too fast, too suddenly.】

【Only cultivators at the Golden Core stage or above could grasp what had happened.】

【“When Jinghong strikes, there is life without death.” Someone murmured, clearly having recognized the sword art you had used.】

【“So this is the Jinghong Sword Art? Truly terrifying!”】

【“This disciple’s Jinghong Sword Art has already reached the transformation realm!”】

【Ignoring everyone’s shock, you leaped up and landed directly on the final arena.】

【“You… what do you want?” The Azure Cloud Sect disciple seemed not to have recovered from the previous battle.】

【“Kill you!” With those words, you attacked first once again.】

【This time, you did not use the Jinghong Sword Technique. Instead, you switched to palm techniques.】

【With your heaven-descending palm technique having entered the Grandmaster Realm, its power was greater than ever.】

【The first palm — your opponent could still handle it with ease.】

【The second palm — he began to struggle.】

【The third palm directly struck him until he vomited blood!】

【Palm after palm, you gave your opponent no time to breathe.】

【Eventually, even you lost count of how many palms you had unleashed. You only knew that the spiritual energy within you was exhausted, and your cultivation had fallen back to the eighth layer of Foundation Establishment.】

【You panted slightly, the side effects beginning to set in, your body gradually growing weak.】

【A battle of just a few minutes had once again reduced your lifespan by twenty years, but you felt it was worth it.】

【After killing these two, your thoughts flowed freely, your heart like a clear mirror.】

【When the smoke dispersed, everyone could finally see the battlefield’s outcome.】

【Where you had bombarded with wild abandon, enormous palm prints were clearly visible!】

【Within the palm prints, no figure could be seen — only a pool of flesh and blood remained in place.】

【Only from the clothing could one barely tell it had been an Azure Cloud Sect disciple.】

【“You dare!” A furious shout rang out as a Golden Core cultivator from the Azure Cloud Sect’s ranks suddenly attacked, wanting to kill you.】

【You turned a blind eye to it. Just as the Golden Core cultivator’s attack was about to reach you, Ouyang Xiu suddenly intervened, blocking it for you.】

【“Does the Azure Cloud Sect wish to go to war with my Body-Refining Sect?” The moment Ouyang Xiu said this, the Elders of the Body-Refining Sect appeared one after another, completely surrounding the Azure Cloud Sect group.】

【A strong dragon does not suppress a local snake. Though the Azure Cloud Sect cultivators were arrogant, they were not foolish.】

【The Golden Core cultivator who had attacked hurriedly apologized to you and offered quite a few resources as compensation, and only then was the matter dropped.】

【Though you greatly wanted to kill this person, you knew that with your current cultivation, you simply could not kill across a major realm.】

【The farce ended, and the sparring session came to a close.】

【You thanked Ouyang Xiu and left with Li Changsheng.】

【Though you had left, your achievements today spread far and wide within the sect.】

【Along with it, the Jinghong Sword Technique you cultivated became popular as well.】

【Only those who had cultivated the Jinghong Sword Technique could know just how difficult this art truly was.】

【Smart as you were, it had still taken you a full thirty-plus years of cultivation to barely reach the Grandmaster Realm.】

【Before Hong Li’s grave, Li Changsheng fell to his knees, weeping bitterly. “Senior Sister Hong, your Junior Brother has avenged you today! I hope you rest well.”】

【You stood to the side, gazing at Hong Li’s gravestone, silently saying nothing.】

【The cultivation world was just this cruel. Senior and junior brothers who had been laughing and talking with you yesterday could be separated by life and death today.】

【No one could guarantee whether they would still see tomorrow’s sun.】

【In the thirty-fifth year, Xiao Fan returned with Li Chen. The first thing they did upon returning to the sect was seek you out.】

【“Senior Brother, I heard you went on a rampage before, killing two ninth-layer Foundation Establishment cultivators with your eighth-layer cultivation?” The moment he saw you, Li Chen’s mouth began chattering nonstop.】

【“Senior Brother, I saw the palm prints you left on the Martial Grounds. They were powerful!” Xiao Fan praised without stinting. This art was one he had originally gifted you, so he knew its strength very well.】

【Arriving at your cave residence, the three of you drank and chatted.】

【Over these years, they had traveled east and west, collecting all manner of herbs and cultivation arts. Finally, a few days ago, Xiao Fan had helped Li Chen successfully condense the False Core!】

【“Come to think of it, I’ve troubled Senior Brother Xiao all these years, willing to run around with me everywhere.” Li Chen raised his cup and toasted Xiao Fan.】

【Xiao Fan waved his hand, saying it was only proper. After all, the reason Li Chen had done all this back then was to protect his own safety.】

【That night, you drank a great deal and talked for a long time. After dawn broke, you each went your separate ways.】

【Aside from Li Chen coming to spar with you every few days, your life once again fell into calm.】

【In the thirty-sixth year, your Breath-Concealing Art entered the Minor Completion Stage. Unless one was a Nascent Soul cultivator, no one could see through your cultivation.】

【In the thirty-eighth year, your Blood Escape Art entered the Grandmaster Realm. At full power, you could flee several thousand li in a single use.】

【In the fortieth year, the Trial Battlefield was about to open. You remained in secluded cultivation the entire time, striving to break through to the ninth layer of Foundation Establishment.】

【Ever since that battle with the Azure Cloud Sect, you had touched the threshold of the ninth layer of Foundation Establishment. So many years had passed, yet you were still always just a bit short.】

【You suspected you had encountered a cultivation bottleneck.】

【You began asking Li Chen and Xiao Fan for advice. They suggested you leave the sect and walk through the mortal world for a while.】

【You thought it over briefly and felt they were quite right.】

【From the time you joined the Body-Refining Sect, nearly forty years had passed without you leaving.】

【You had almost forgotten what the mortal world was like.】

【You found the Sect Master and told him you wished to go out and temper yourself.】

【The Sect Master did not refuse. He merely gave you three things: a map, a token, and a talisman.】

【The map was a full view of the northern part of the Heaven Mystery Continent, with the positions of the various factions and the location of the Trial Battlefield marked in detail.】

【The token was your entry pass to participate in the Trial Battlefield.】

【The final talisman contained a full-power strike from a Nascent Soul cultivator!】

【“I will be waiting for you at the Trial Battlefield!” Ouyang Xiu said.】